Oskar Schlemmer’s Kitsch (1922): A Contextualisation and Translation

Brayshaw, E

Oskar Schlemmer’s Kitsch (1922): A Contextualisation and Translation

Brayshaw, E

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Publisher:: Taylor and Francis
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: The Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2021, 13, (1), pp. 1-15
Issue Date:: 2021-06-30

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Brayshaw, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8549-0947
dc.date.accessioned	2021-06-30T04:01:57Z
dc.date.available	2021-06-16
dc.date.available	2021-06-30T04:01:57Z
dc.date.issued	2021-06-30
dc.identifier.citation	The Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2021, 13, (1), pp. 1-15
dc.identifier.issn	2000-4214
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/149788
dc.description.abstract	This article contextualises a previously unpublished manuscript on the subject of kitsch written in 1922 by the Bauhaus practitioner Oskar Schlemmer and provides an original annotated translation as an appendix. The article positions Schlemmer’s manuscript as a response to debates about the aesthetics of kitsch among his contemporaries in the German and Austrian intelligentsia, including Austrian architect Adolf Loos; Stuttgart-based art historian and member of the Deutscher Werkbund Gustav Pazaurek; the founding member of the Dürerbund, Ferdinand Avenarius; and the avant-garde satirist Frank Wedekind. Schlemmer’s unpublished manuscript is also located as part of a broader response to the social upheavals of industrialisation and the First World War, where the concept of kitsch figured centrally in discussions among taste-makers about the progress and purpose of art and design in the new century. While ‘kitsch’ in Germany before 1920 was generally considered to be in poor taste and an expression of bourgeois excess, Schlemmer argues that not all kitsch is bad. Schlemmer’s manuscript highlights a shift, following the First World War, in attitudes among the German avant-garde towards what constituted kitsch and the role that it may have had on design inspiration within modernist theatre. Like Pazaurek, who classified different categories of kitsch, Schlemmer, too, identifies a new category of kitsch – ‘true’ kitsch – and states not only that it appears as an expression of the joy found in popular entertainment, such as at market fairs, but that it is beautiful and as such should be celebrated.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Taylor and Francis
dc.relation.ispartof	The Journal of Aesthetics & Culture
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/20004214.2021.1945239
dc.rights	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.subject	1901 Art Theory and Criticism, 2001 Communication and Media Studies, 2002 Cultural Studies
dc.title	Oskar Schlemmer’s Kitsch (1922): A Contextualisation and Translation
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	13
utslib.for	1901 Art Theory and Criticism
utslib.for	2001 Communication and Media Studies
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
utslib.copyright.status	recently_added	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2021-06-30T04:01:04Z
pubs.issue	1
pubs.publication-status	In preparation
pubs.volume	13
utslib.citation.issue	1

Abstract:

This article contextualises a previously unpublished manuscript on the subject of kitsch written in 1922 by the Bauhaus practitioner Oskar Schlemmer and provides an original annotated translation as an appendix. The article positions Schlemmer’s manuscript as a response to debates about the aesthetics of kitsch among his contemporaries in the German and Austrian intelligentsia, including Austrian architect Adolf Loos; Stuttgart-based art historian and member of the Deutscher Werkbund Gustav Pazaurek; the founding member of the Dürerbund, Ferdinand Avenarius; and the avant-garde satirist Frank Wedekind. Schlemmer’s unpublished manuscript is also located as part of a broader response to the social upheavals of industrialisation and the First World War, where the concept of kitsch figured centrally in discussions among taste-makers about the progress and purpose of art and design in the new century. While ‘kitsch’ in Germany before 1920 was generally considered to be in poor taste and an expression of bourgeois excess, Schlemmer argues that not all kitsch is bad. Schlemmer’s manuscript highlights a shift, following the First World War, in attitudes among the German avant-garde towards what constituted kitsch and the role that it may have had on design inspiration within modernist theatre. Like Pazaurek, who classified different categories of kitsch, Schlemmer, too, identifies a new category of kitsch – ‘true’ kitsch – and states not only that it appears as an expression of the joy found in popular entertainment, such as at market fairs, but that it is beautiful and as such should be celebrated.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/149788